Stoke on Trent - The Potteries

Another lovely day saw us carry on through Stoke on Trent, passing the huge recycling plant / incinerator on our way.

The area around Stoke on Trent is known as The Potteries for obvious reasons. It's been the centre of the British pottery industry since the 1800's and one of the dominating features of the region are the 46 remaining bottle kilns which have been preserved as listed builings and can be found at various places along the canal system.  If you'd like to know more about The Potteries and bottle kilns you can read about it  HERE

 This pair of bottle kilns stand between 2 blocks of flats beside the canal at Hanley.

At Etruria C&RT have posted advisory notices on the locks.

You see plenty of boaters dropping the paddles instead of winding them down and I'm all in favour of trying to re-educate these people, but this particular paddle gear is physically incapable of being dropped. You HAVE to wind it down.  It's just typical of the old BW and new C&RT that the sign is posted in the wrong position. It would have been far more appropriate to post it on the lock below.

We moored for the night at Westport Lake.

It's the last mooring before Harecastle Tunnel which we'll be going through on Wednesday morning.  I'm not sure yet if I'll travel through the tunnel on the back of the boat with Roger, or make an excuse of doing the washing up and hoovering and hide inside. I'll let you know how I get on.

Stone to Stoke

When I opened the blinds on Sunday morning I could hardly see across the canal and the bridge which was 50 yards away was just a hazy outline. It was thick fog, the first we’ve had so far this year. That didn't deter a hire boat though, as it went rushing past at 8am with all the curtains shut and a solitary figure on the back clutching his mug of something or other. He didn't slow down when he went past us and next thing there was a loud bang as he'd driven into the bridge. He must have been in one hell of a rush to get somewhere as it hardly slowed him down and I heard the revs increase again when he finally made it through the bridge hole.

By 11am the fog had burnt off and it was another glorious day so we carried on to Stone and found a mooring quite easily. We had a wander over to the Food and Drink Festival but they were charging £6 each to get in and the beer tent was run by the Titanic Brewery and Roger doesn't like their beer, so we didn't bother. Later in the afternoon I was shopping in Morrisons and overheard a conversation where the people were complaining that they'd been to the festival, but they thought everything on sale inside was very overpriced and they wouldn't bother going again.

There's a new Aldi supermarket in Stone and after a quick trip to re-stock the cupboards this morning we carried on up Stone and Meaford Locks. Most of the locks on the Stone flight leak badly, this was one of the better ones!

We're now moored near Stoke on Trent, opposite Stoke City Football Club. It's a lovely spot, just a shame we're right beside the busy main railway line.